Instagram 3.0 was made available for download yesterday. The major release will be welcomed by the 80 million users who are sharing photos with friends via Instagram’s iPhone and Android apps.

Instagram 3.0 includes a variety of improvements and performance enhancements, but the goal of the release was clearly to improve, and re-imagine, the browsing and exploration experience.

During an interview with TechCrunch, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom described the new update:

“With every data release we’ve tried to shift our focus dramatically. Instagram 2.0, with its new filters, etc, was all about the user’s production experience. Instagram 3.0 is about a new kind of browser experience, Photo Maps. Photo Maps is such a fun way of re-descovering yourself, but not just yourself, all Instagram users”

Photo Maps, a feature of the member profile, provides an alternative map-based way to browse photo collections. The experience provides a new and fun way to browse other’s photos, but it’s also a fun way to rediscover some of your own photos.

Instagram’s Photo Maps

Improvements like support for continuous browsing, and slightly larger grid photos will also be welcomed by the army of people that use Instagram on a daily basis.

The video below provides a walkthrough of the new Photo Map feature if you’re interested in learning more. Or, just download Instagram for iOS, or Android, it’s FREE!

The Polaroid Z2300 would be way more interesting if Polaroid had partnered with Instagram. Imagine the Z2300 with Instragram’s filters and easy wi-fi sharing. That would have been an amazing product, something to get excited about. On the other hand, the Indiegogo funding campaign for the Socialmatic Camera fizzled out, so maybe I’m wrong about the interest in an Instagram camera that can instantly print your photos.

Control your DSLR from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch using the ioShutter Camera Remote and ioShutter App. The ioShutter App (free and paid) supports six different modes: standard trigger, motion trigger, sound trigger, time-lapse, timer, bulb, and modes can be combined. Most of Canon’s cameras are supported, and it sounds like a version for Nikon cameras is in the works.

The ioShutter Camera Remote competes with the successful Kickstarter project - Trigger Happy camera remote. Remotes like these are going to replaces the standard remote switches most manufacturers offer – the added functionality you get in the supporting Apps makes it an easy choice, and you don’t have to pay a whole lot more for the added functionality.

Update 05.08.12: Camera’s from the following manufacturers are supported by ioShutter Camera Remote: Canon, Hasselblad, Pentax, and Samsung. Nikon coming this summer. Compatibility details available on the ioShutter website.

Instaprint is a location based photo booth that can transform parties and events by putting a camera in everyone’s hand. By setting Instaprint to look out for specific locations or hashtags, any Instagram tagged appropriately will automatically be printed out on inkless paper.

My friend Pat McCarthy, cofounder and CEO of Fantuition, posted his thoughts on the new Batch photosharing App the other day. I haven’t had a chance to check Batch out yet, but based on his review, it sounds like a great tool for sharing photos with friends and family.

You can see the future potential if batches from one event or location are grouped automatically and viewable together. It could nicely fulfill the promise of Color that never came to be.- Pat McCarthy / ConversionRater.com

I’ve been an Instagram user for a long time and it’s still one of my favorite iPhone photography Apps. The App is hugely popular, and it has inspired all kinds of photographers and artists. It’s easy to get lost in time browsing the work of the most followed Instagram photographers.

I was in a pinch this year to get our annual family photo done before the ball dropped in New York’s Times Square, so on the 31st I combined Instagram with a new service from CanvasPop to get it done. In November, CanvasPop launched a service that allows you to print your Instagram photos on two large-format canvas sizes: 12″ x 12″ (for $29.95) and 20″ x 20″ (for $59.95). Proprietary CavasPop filters, and the inherently imperfect canvas surface, make up for the shortfall in pixels that are typically required to print at this size.

I haven’t received the print yet, but I’m expecting great things. One way or the other, I was glad to put my iPhone camera and Instragram to use for this year’s photo – it’s appropriate considering the number of pictures I took with my iPhone in 2011 – the Canon 7d spent most of the year in the bag.

I just got back from another great fly fishing trip on the Deschutes River in central Oregon. It was our 2nd annual 3 Generations trip – granddads, regular dads, and their sons. Where exactly, I’m not going to say, because this isn’t a blog about fishing and I don’t want to see you there next year – no offense. I’m writing this post because I want to share a little about some of the technology I came across in the field.

One of the things I love about camping, and fly fishing for that matter, is the gear that you get to bring along on every trip. I’m always looking for that new piece of gear that’s going to make the next camping trip just a little more comfortable; and that fly fishing doodad that’s going to help me land the big one. Fortunately, or unfortunately if you’re running out of room in the garage for the Action Packers you use to store your gear, innovations in technology are constantly fueling the development of new and improved gear. I love my gear, and I love talking to my fellow campers and fisherman about their gear too.

On the Deschutes trip, I bumped into Tom Fratzke, a photographer I met on the same trip last year. Photographers are usually gear heads, and Tom is no exception, so I was excited to talk with him about the new gear he’d picked up for the field this year.

Tom had a bunch of cool stuff, but his new FAVI B1 mini projector stood out. There’s a picture of Tom’s projector set up below. Tom uses the projector to watch movies in the field on a 60″ portable screen – he’s watching True Grit here. Now True Grit is a good movie, but it’s even better in the field after a day of fly fishing and a good dinner, with the sound of the Deschutes flowing in the background. The B1 SPEC is impressive considering you can hold it in the palm of your hand. It puts out 35 lumens, has a native resolution of 800×600, 1 GB of online storage, and a media card slot that can support SD/SDHC memory cards up to 16 GB . Tom connects his iPod Touch to the B1, and it works beautifully.

Tom's Projector Set Up

Tom powers the B1 projector with a Brunton Impel renewable-battery system – the yellow brick under the tripod supporting the projector in the picture above. The Impel can charge nearly any electronic device through built-in USB and includes 12v, 16v and 19v outputs. The Impel can store 13,000 mAh, and handles the modest power needs of the B1 beautifully. If the Impel is depleted in the field, Tom uses a Brunton Solarroll 9 to charge it, but it usually isn’t necessary.

I thought Tom’s projector set up was pretty cool and worth sharing. The FAVI B1 mini projector, combined with the Brunton power system is a great, and fairly affordable way, to bring a little extra entertainment along on any trip. I’m not saying you should spend your evenings in the field around a projector, as opposed to a good fire, but a good movie in the field can be a lot of fun. Thanks for sending the picture over Tom. See you next year.

The Glif folks are about to ship the first round of their cleverly designed and crowdsource-funded tripod mount for the iPhone 4.

Glif is a simple iPhone 4 accessory that can act as a standard tripod mount for your iPhone 4, or as a kickstand to prop your iPhone up at an angle. Great for hands-free FaceTiming, watching videos, making movies, using your iPhone as an alarm clock, and more. I love the simplicity of the design.

I bumped into this short video – a behind the scenes look at the injection molding manufacturing process used to manufacture the Glif.

From there, intrigued by the Glif story, I ended up on the KICKSTARTER website, where you can read more about their campaign to raise funding and watch their crafty campaign video. Their funding goal for the project was 10k, they’ve already raised $137,417. Congratulations Tom and Dan. Side note, loving the whole crowdsourced funding thing.

We’re always looking for new ways to make it easier for you to share your photos and videos with the people who matter to you. Today, we’re launching a new and improved way to share your Flickr photos with your friends and family on Facebook! Just connect your Flickr and Facebook accounts and we’ll automatically send an update to your Facebook feed every time you upload a public photo or video.

I was excited to take advantage of this feature because I assumed it would be better than the Facebook import feature, which has supported Flickr for years. Unfortunately, Flickr’s Facebook integration is about as basic as you can get. Every image you post to your Flickr photostream is posted as an individual Wall update to your Facebook account. Unfortunately - did I say unfortunately again? – for someone like me, that’s often uploading dozens of photos at a time to Flickr, this just don’t work very well – my Facebook wall was quickly transformed into a Flickr photostream.

You’d think that Flickr/Yahoo!, with the resources they have available. would be able to come up with a more full featured integration. There are dozens of Flickr Facebook applications out there written by individuals in their spare time that blow this out of the water. Like the title of this post says, Flickr’s Facebook integration is a disappointment. I’m really surprised Wired or ReadWriteWeb didn’t ding Flickr/Yahoo! a bit for this poor showing.

I think Flickr/Yahoo! spent more time writing the announcement blog post than their developers did working on the integration ; ) I wonder how many people hours Yahoo! spent pushing this through the bureaucracy.

I was browsing the TC feed this morning and was surprised to learn that Facebook is sporting twice as many photos as Flickr. Flickr just reached 2 billion photos – Facebook is sporting 4.1 billion photos. Facebook might have quantity but I’m sure Flickr wins on quality. 2 Billion Photos on Flickr.

PopPhoto.com, the on-line home of Popular Photography & Imaging Magazine, sports Twelve Essential Photograhic Rules – a collection of photography rules-of-thumb that will increase your chances of capturing the moment the way you see it.

From Sunny 16 to Moony 11, 8, and 5.6, these facts, formulas, and photographic rules can get you out of a jam and help you get good shots when nothing else will.

Fall is in full swing here in Oregon and the greater Pacific Northwest. The pumpkin patch is one of my favorite places to explore with my camera in hand. The pumpkins contrast with the other fall colors to create lots of fantastic opportunities to capture the light. I took this picture at a popular patch in Pleasant Hill Oregon – Northern Lights Christmas Tree Farm. Enjoy Fall – capture it with your camera!

One more shot – almost dark by this point. Long exposure and tripod mounted. The rocks and the tidal pools here are a great place to spend the day. See my Flickr for a few more. Had a great weekend in Yachats Oregon. Goodnight.